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As a result of a prank, four students had to volunteer at the fall fair on Halloween. Gwen, the ringleader, suggested gifting her English teacher a suit with tear away Velcro. She bribed her goody two shoes girlfriend, Courtney, to make the suit while Gwen's other two accomplices, Noah and Cody, caught her teacher's reaction on film.
The morning of the fall fair, Cody was busy moving hay bales onto a horse-drawn cart. He was given the task of taking small children on a hayride. Courtney sighed from afar, as she was busy stuffing scarecrows. She envied Gwen, who was the judge of a Jack o'lantern contest.
"Noah, come out," Gwen called.
"No," he huffed. "I look ridiculous."
"Nothing could look more ridiculous than your boyfriend trying to throw hay bales onto the cart," said Courtney.
Sighing, Noah came out of the public washroom adjacent to the fairground entrance. He was dressed as a prince with a crown made of straw. Cody slapped his knee and laughed so hard he fell over.
"Yeah, laugh it up now," Noah groaned. "At least I'm not judging a fucking Jack o'lantern contest."
Gwen stomped on Noah's foot before climbing a ladder to hang the welcome banner. Courtney stood on a step stool to help straighten the banner out. Noah checked his watch; it wasn't even noon yet, so he thought about bailing to go get lunch.
Before Noah left, Cody ran up to him. He smiled at his prince, despite said prince wearing a straw crown. "What are you doing again?"
"I'm just there to look pretty," Noah droned. "Courtney, why'd you agree to put me through this torture? Gwen's the reason we're here."
"Because the ringleader of our prank is now the ringleader of this stupid fall fair, I guess," said Courtney.
Gwen sneered at Noah before Cody walked back to the cart. He had only thrown one hay bale onto the cart, so he tried tipping it over to try and make the hay sit before moving the cart upright again.
"Cody, that's a bad idea," said Gwen. "Do you need help?"
"I guess," Cody chuckled.
"You, Prince Scarecrow. Help your boyfriend."
Sighing, Noah walked over to the cart and helped Cody hoist the hay bales on top. The group of four kept working until just before sundown, an hour before the fall fair started. Gwen turned around; families were already lined up outside the entrance. She sighed and took Courtney inside the community centre.
"What is it?"
"Do we still want to wear the costumes?" asked Gwen.
"It'd make us look better," Courtney replied. She took a bag of clothes and gave it to Gwen. "I'll be right here when you're done."
Gwen nodded and kissed Courtney before changing into her costume. While waiting, Courtney tied her hair in two pigtails and took off her coat. She stood outside the bathroom dressed as Harley Quinn, waiting for Gwen to finish changing into her Poison Ivy costume.
She returned to Courtney with fake vines wrapped around her arms. Gwen was dressed from head to toe in all green. Excitedly, Courtney jumped up and down and clapped her hands. She grabbed Gwen's wrist and ran back outside.
Outside, Courtney could hear Cody and Noah arguing with each other. She smacked her forehead and walked up to the cart with Gwen slowly trailing behind.
"I told you," Noah exclaimed. "You lost the bet."
"But why?" Cody whined.
Noah shrugged. "I didn't invent the coin. We did a best of thirteen, for fuck's sake."
"What is it now?" Courtney groaned.
"I told Cody that if he couldn't hoist a single bale onto the cart, he'd have to wear this."
Out of nowhere, Noah pulled out a long, purple gown. It came with a tiara made of straw, so Cody could suffer with him. Once Gwen caught up, she saw the dress and started laughing.
Courtney opened the gates to the fairgrounds and let guests in. Everything seemed to be going well, with the exception of kids pointing and laughing at Cody's princess getup. He mumbled expletives under his breath every time new kids went on the hayride.
With Gwen busy looking at pumpkins, her focus was gone because of Cody. He ran up to her, panicking in fear. Gwen smacked Cody upside the head with her clipboard before he spoke.
"I thought I saw something," he shuddered.
"Cody, those were probably trees," Gwen mumbled.
"No, they weren't. I tried telling Noah, but he was too busy getting photos with tiny children. The last ride, I saw this terrifying shadow and it sure as hell wasn't a tree."
Even Gwen was confused and, to be honest, nervous. "Tell you what, Cody. Let me finish this. I'll go get Courtney; she's teaching kids to make straw wreaths. Tell Noah to go on a lunch break, and we'll figure this out."
Cody nodded and shook Gwen's hand. He walked back to the horse and cart. His horse didn't seem fazed one bit. Cody sighed and readjusted the tiara before climbing back onto the cart.
An hour later, Gwen and Courtney tracked down Noah, who looked less than thrilled. He saw the girls and waved to them. At last, Noah could step away from the children for a second.
"Cody's worried he's been seeing things on the hayride," said Gwen.
"So, does he want us on this hayride?" Noah droned.
Courtney nodded. "If anything, we get a break and all of us get a hayride."
Noah thought about it, then shook his head in agreement. He ran away from his station after the girls. Perfect timing; Cody had just pulled in after another ride. Gwen helped Courtney and Noah onto the cart while Cody fed the horse before taking off.
"Saddle up," Gwen exclaimed.
Cody lightly flicked the reins and off they went. The sun had already gone down, so everything looked more unnerving. Courtney pointed out trees that looked like people, which scared Cody. She shook her head before everyone got closer to the trees.
"Why does it look like a shark's fin?" Gwen asked softly.
Noah shuddered. "Please, no. Sharks are why I don't go swimming."
"It can't be a shark," Courtney exclaimed. "We're on land. What are you looking at, the triangular thing on the edge of the branch? It's a flag."
Cody stopped the horse abruptly. He got on Noah's shoulders to reach for the flag. Once he grabbed it, he read the words, printed in blood. His heart thumped a little faster.
Go deep in the woods.
"Guys, we have to get back to the fair," said Courtney.
"I'm going in," Cody said nervously. "Whatever, I can't stand being ridiculed by fucking five year olds over this damn dress. Let's go."
Courtney screamed and got off the cart. Shrugging, Cody flicked the reins as the horse began walking again. Gwen watched Courtney from the cart. She turned around to look ahead, but Courtney was gone.
"What the hell?" Noah asked. "Courtney's gone."
Still carrying on, the remaining three kept looking in the forest for anything unusual. Gwen pointed out another flag on the ground. It had the name Mr. Handel - Gwen's teacher - written on it. She laughed nervously, only to find Noah restrained to a nearby tree. Gwen and Cody screamed and held onto each other.
"What the hell happened?!" Cody gasped.
"Just leave me," Noah strained. "You two go on without me."
"Are you sure?" asked Gwen.
Noah nodded as Cody unhooked the horse from the cart. He helped Gwen onto the horse's back. The two fled as quickly as they could on horseback, only to stop at a nearby creek.
"Oh, fuck," Gwen panicked. "We need to turn back."
"No, it's easy to get over," said Cody. "Trust me."
He got off the horse's back and stepped on the tiny stones leading to the other side of the creek. Cody took Gwen's hand and helped her across. Unfortunately, they had to leave the horse behind.
"Man," Gwen chuckled. "Funny how the princess helped me across."
She turned around, but there was no sign of Cody. Confused, Gwen called his name a few times. Then, she tried calling out to Courtney and Noah. Too nervous to carry on, she walked across the creek again and rode the horse out of the woods.
When Gwen returned, people were leaving the fair. Everything had stopped running and there was no sign of her girlfriend or the boys. She slipped on another flag, which had a message that shocked her.
Mr. Handel is dead. It was Gwen.
"What?!" she exclaimed. "Whoever wrote this, very funny. It wasn't me! It wasn't fucking me!"
She fell to her knees, sobbing. Gwen feared her teacher's blood was really on her hands after a small prank. There was a small tap on her shoulder. A hand was held in front of Gwen; she looked up and saw Courtney, covered in mud.
"Courtney!" she sobbed, kissing her as hard as she could. "Oh, my God. What happened?"
"Boys?" Courtney called. There was no response. "Ugh, one second."
Courtney ran off to grab Noah and Cody. Too nervous to be alone, Gwen ran after her. The girls ended up behind the community centre, where Noah had Cody pressed up against a wall, kissing him harder than Gwen kissed Courtney.
"Guys!" Courtney hollered. "Gig's up. We got her."
"Huh?" Gwen was confused. "Oh, God. Was this a prank?"
"Yup," Cody giggled. "You know something? I think this dress is slowly growing on me."
"Don't get too attached," Noah chuckled. "How else are you gonna get it off?"
Courtney fell over from laughing so hard. Gwen couldn't help but giggle at Cody's expense. The smaller boy turned red and hid his face. Noah helped Cody up and unlocked his car.
"Well, now that this is over," Gwen sighed. "Where were you, love?"
"Hid behind a tree," said Courtney. "I'm the one who tied Noah to the tree and I helped Cody escape as well."
"Damn," Gwen whispered. "You are an actual mastermind. You guys wanna go back to Noah's or something?"
"Sure," Noah replied. "We can watch that new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. Or should I pirate Saw X? Eh, let's decide once we're on the road."
Noah's car pulled out of the parking lot. After some hesitation, he finally drove away. This was a prank Gwen would never forget. One led by her girlfriend, the real ringleader.